TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

The "bitch about your GM" thread

Go To

Esteban009 Bitter Hateful Cynic from Practically Atlantis Since: Jan, 2010
Bitter Hateful Cynic
#251: Nov 10th 2010 at 4:38:20 AM

The last ST our group had was at his best when he made it painfully obvious which players he liked and which players he didn't like.

That resulted in my character not having a single thing to do, and not having any weight in the game. In short, I was there for shits and giggles.

Problem number two: as a player he likes to min-max his characters, and as a ST he expects us to do so too. Which our group really doesn't care much about. We tend to make characters that are overall pretty well-rounded.

It's not that we encountered a whole bunch of over-powered bad-guys, it's just that the whole story was built around what he would like to encounter as a player.

Number 3: having an insufferable, smug storyteller kills the mood pretty fast. He's the expert, he knows everything, and the rest of us, we don't know how things work, not as well as he does. So we were kept in the dark for a whole bunch of stuff... which made discovering the game no fun at all.

edited 10th Nov '10 4:39:40 AM by Esteban009

Kayeka (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#252: Nov 10th 2010 at 5:01:39 AM

I'm starting to believe that typical LARP groups are simply too big to manage fairly. No matter how hard you try, there will be people the ST is friends with and people whom he isn't friends with. Because dealing with friends is more fun then dealing with non-friends, the ST will give his friends more weight to the story. This is human nature that is near impossible to avoid, unless everyone in the group can consider themselves a friend of the ST (which will only make it really difficult to avoid).

And there is the problem that people in general are lousy at making up stories. And since LARP demands great immersion, you can't just laugh off the DM's Cliché Storm with a bunch of Monty Python quotes. LAR Pers have no defence against such frustration, besides long and spirited arguments with the ST.

This is an observation from someone whose LARP experience is limited to horror stories on the internet. Don't think too much of it.

drunkscriblerian Street Writing Man from Castle Geekhaven Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: In season
Street Writing Man
#253: Nov 10th 2010 at 8:44:02 PM

[up]For someone who's never gone, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. Kudos.

And this is from someone who spent 15 years LAR Ping. Hell, I'm from the town where World of Darkness LARP was freaking born (Wikipedia, look it up; Western Washington University, Viking Con 1992).

It can be avoided, but its awfully damn hard. It requires a committed ST and a mature player base; two things that do not often happen in a LARP setting. For some reason.

When played right, LARP can be amazing. When played wrong, it can make a person want to gouge out their eyes with a melon-baller.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~
Ezekiel Since: Jan, 2001
#254: Nov 17th 2010 at 12:23:15 AM

I actually have surprisingly little to complain about this week.

After using Detect Magic to look at an artifact with a connection to an evil god, the DM ruled that my character actually went blind from the intensity of the aura, a possibility which is not provided for in either the spell description or the module. Which means disrupting "Magic A" Is "Magic A". This is, however, the only complaint I actually have about this week's game, and it's a pretty minor thing since it only lasted about a minute in-game and absolutely nothing happened during that time that I needed to react to.

Oh, plus the DM continues to go by his "characters can only speak on their own turn" weirdness, which adds unnecessary complication to such things as, say, interrogating or negotiating during a battle, not to mention actually roleplaying.

edited 17th Nov '10 1:16:52 AM by Ezekiel

TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#255: Nov 17th 2010 at 11:23:14 AM

Detect Evil had such a provision if I recall.

Magus Since: Jan, 2001
#256: Nov 18th 2010 at 12:19:41 AM

He probably just added it for fluff.

StalkThis Hmm? from Left of something cool Since: Sep, 2009
Hmm?
#257: Nov 18th 2010 at 1:34:01 AM

A quick look at the SRD shows that detect evil can stun the caster for 1 round if the aura is evil, overwhelming, the caster is good-aligned, and the HD or caster level of the aura's source is twice that of the caster's level.

TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#258: Nov 18th 2010 at 6:58:38 AM

Which is basically the case for all major evil artifacts-but I don't believe Detect Magic normally works that way. ON THE OTHER HAND, it's an artifact. It's certainly allowed to break the rules ;D

But personally I play 4E anymore so what do I know.

StalkThis Hmm? from Left of something cool Since: Sep, 2009
Hmm?
#259: Nov 18th 2010 at 2:59:43 PM

By the rules, uness the artifact specifically blinds the caster in that sitch, the worst that'd happen is a stun, byRAW.

Ezekiel Since: Jan, 2001
#260: Nov 18th 2010 at 6:47:33 PM

It wasn't a big deal, except for the minute or so I spent panicking because I thought my character had been permanently blinded for trying to determine what school of magic was cast on the obelisk.

inane242 Anwalt der Verdammten from A B-Movie Bildungsroman Since: Nov, 2010
Anwalt der Verdammten
#261: Nov 28th 2010 at 8:32:08 PM

I had a wonderful DM who designed intricate, detailed worlds... and left us hanging when he joined the ROTC. (facepalm)

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.
Phyi from Internet Since: Apr, 2010
#262: Nov 29th 2010 at 4:50:44 PM

My GM does not know how to keep a schedule. For example, if a game is advertised as starting at 5:00pm, you can bet it starts at 7:30pm.

drunkscriblerian Street Writing Man from Castle Geekhaven Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: In season
Street Writing Man
#263: Nov 29th 2010 at 6:03:00 PM

[up]Ah. In the industry we call that GST (Gamer Standard Time); it runs 1-3 hours behind whatever physical time zone you're actually in.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#264: Dec 30th 2010 at 7:38:02 AM

Usually I'm the GM, but for a while I had a GM in Fresno. He was already showing a disturbing sign of My-NP Cs-Are-Better-Than-You when I left - our Aberrant campaign had just derailed after we accidentally killed Merlin and restored Atlantis to the world. And Aberrant doesn't have magic (or it didn't until he got ahold of it).

Apparently, his next campaign was a Scion campaign, after a couple players asked him to run it. So he did ... and after about a dozen game sessions, banned all powers from the Demigod and God books. But only for the P Cs - NP Cs were still allowed to have all of the better powers. After that, even they stopped gaming with him. I didn't get to experience that first-hand, but heard about it from e-mails and chats with my friends.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
drunkscriblerian Street Writing Man from Castle Geekhaven Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: In season
Street Writing Man
#265: Dec 30th 2010 at 10:54:39 PM

I've recently been in a Shadowrun campaign...while the other players are cool (even if they do smoke way too much weed) the GM is sorta irritating. I'm willing to forgive a lot because he's an aspie, he can't really help it and does actually apologize for blantant social faux pas...but goddamn it, do all his characters have to have nail-on-chalkboard accents?? If I run into one more Mr. Johnson who sounds like Scrooge Mc Duck on helium I'm dumping my whiskey-coke in his lap.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of that game...I wanted to play a female character (I do a 50/50 gender split with tabletop characters these days, keeps things interesting) and one of the other players remarked he was "uncomfortable" with the whole thing...apparently too many super-slut gender benders had soured him. I said /shrug and made the character violently asexual...So far, her only comment about sex has been "ew!"

And now his character is flirting with mine. That was a little weird, to say the least.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~
NotSoBadassLongcoat The Showrunner of Dzwiedz 24 from People's Democratic Republic of Badassia (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Puppy love
The Showrunner of Dzwiedz 24
#266: Dec 31st 2010 at 7:38:13 AM

I said /shrug and made the character violently asexual...So far, her only comment about sex has been "ew!"
Heh, my usual L 5 R GM's character tried to hit on my female Nosferatu driver in a Requiem campaign G Med by Blue Oni's husband. Staying in character, he tried cheap tricks while my usual response was a bored-sounding "Fuck off." And to think he's the social character of the bunch.

"what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis
Deathonabun Bunny from the bedroom Since: Jan, 2001
Bunny
#267: Jan 1st 2011 at 1:28:49 AM

I don't really have any complaits about either of my G Ms, really.

They're both rather reasonable people. They're brothers, and the younger is running a Scion campaign, while the older is running an Exalted campaign.

The only complaint I really have is that there isn't much of a plot right now in either of them. In Scion we're doing what is essentially a sidequest (and the main plot hasn't even started yet), and in Exalted we're just getting the characters together.

Of course, I haven't done that many sessions yet. Maybe 6 total. I'm pretty new to this whole roleplaying thing, but I love it.

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander
Ezekiel Since: Jan, 2001
#268: Jan 3rd 2011 at 4:51:14 PM

Oh, here's a thing I just remembered.

My DM ruled a while back, when I tried to make a Knowledge (local) check, that Knowledge (local) only applies to one area with which you are familiar.

That's nonsense. Knowledge (local) SHOULD be applied ONLY to knowing information about customs, well-known individuals, etc., in places you haven't been to very often in the past, because otherwise, if you've spent enough time in an area to be familiar enough with the things covered by Knowledge (local) to represent your knowledge of those things as skill ranks, then you should logically have enough exposure to them to be able to know them without a check. It would be a complete waste of a skill. Plus his ruling means that there is, essentially, NO WAY to know what the laws of any given area are, since laws are covered under Knowledge (local) and not any other Knowledge skill. But he's often sort of a Know-Nothing Know-It-All, it's extremely hard to convince him that the things he's saying just aren't right without hard evidence (I still need to show him the 3.5 Monster Manual entry on lycanthropes to prove that a giant that turns into a dire boar is in fact called a dire wereboar, and not a were dire-boar, though that's a more minor thing).

edited 3rd Jan '11 8:37:26 PM by Ezekiel

BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#269: Jan 31st 2011 at 6:42:44 AM

Playing a Pathfinder game, last night our party of seven 9th level P Cs were attacked.

By an Abboleth with epic levels (GM said afterwards it was a CR 25 encounter).

Despite this, we got it down to less than 100HP (from a starting total of 1,000HP). Two P Cs were dead, two more were mind-controlled, at this point in the combat.

Upon which, he brought out three more CR 18 lesser abboleths, which through DC 30 Will saves at every PC still standing.

For fuck sake, man, I'm okay with some risky combats. But don't have us ambushed by a creature that can Curb Stomp us, and then when we are managing to kick its ass bring out unbloodied henchmen to finish us off. If the plot has only one way for us to proceed, then quit D Ming and hand the reins to someone who doesn't work for Amtrak.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
GoggleFox rrrrrrrrr from Acadia, yo. Since: Jul, 2009
rrrrrrrrr
#270: Jan 31st 2011 at 6:45:53 AM

But Thou Must!! The GM couldn't think of anything else to do here!

I hate that storytelling method so very much.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.
TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#271: Jan 31st 2011 at 8:16:30 AM

If you don't like On The Rails type games, yeah, find a different DM. Personally, I'd just ask how your 9th level party was able to take down a CR 25 monster. Sounds like some pretty ridiculous power gaming (or a really crappily made monster).

Though, honestly, I don't follow 3E anymore.

NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#272: Jan 31st 2011 at 10:45:55 AM

Well, there's some give and take there. When it's really obviously a But Thou Must! moment, just go with it. If your DM is trying to tell a story, then certain things have to happen.

I like how Mutants And Masterminds handles the issue — whenever the DM uses Rule 0 to make something happen as necessary (eg, "you fall into the trap and wake up in a cell", "the villain throws a smoke bomb and escapes instantly"), the players get a hero point, which allows them to do something similar later (eg, rerolling bad throws, temporarily boosting powers, etc).

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
drunkscriblerian Street Writing Man from Castle Geekhaven Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: In season
Street Writing Man
#273: Jan 31st 2011 at 7:27:49 PM

@Native: Great idea, but I can think of players who would horribly misuse that without some form of restraint. Still the concept is sound. Might work something like it into my burgeoning game system.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~
BlueNinja0 The Mod with the Migraine from Taking a left at Albuquerque Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
The Mod with the Migraine
#274: Feb 1st 2011 at 7:56:12 AM

Tomu: The party paladin, before getting mind-raped, double-critted in one round, with Smite Evil, and did exactly 100 points of damage. That, and the gladiator throwing the barrel of gunpowder, is what helped us get it so low.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
NativeJovian Jupiterian Local from Orlando, FL Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Jupiterian Local
#275: Feb 1st 2011 at 8:08:06 AM

[up][up]Well, yeah, the GM has to approve the use of hero points. The player can't just say "The villain is standing in the street, so I'm spending a hero point to make him get hit by a bus".

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Total posts: 937
Top